Buffs softball sweeps TMP

Garden City, KS (westernkansasnews.com)-Garden City Coach Trina Moquett said it emphatically two days before opening day: 

“Abbie (Dart) has to come out strong because we don’t have a solidified number two starter.”

Dart adhered to her coach’s calling. 

The junior struck out 19 in two dominating performances on Thursday while tossing a no-hitter in game one as Garden City swept TMP 6-0 and 3-0. 

“My defense played very well behind me,” Dart said afterwards. “They’ve got my back and I’ve got theirs.”

And with the exception of four errors in the two games, that defense was solid. 

Dart’s run-scoring single and Shai Cartmill’s RBI groundout put Garden City up 2-0 in the first inning of game one. Dart then extended the lead when Haley Saldana singled her home in the third. 

Morgan Cabral and Cartmill added RBIs in the fifth before Dart struck out four out of the last six hitters she faced. 

“It feels good to finally get a game under our belt,” Moquett said afterwards. “For the most part, they played really well.”

In the finale, Kaci Finch put the Buffaloes up 1-0 on a line-drive sac fly that scored Cartmill in the second. Garden City tagged on another run in the frame thanks to a wild pitch. 

Cartmill added an RBI single in the sixth to make it 3-0 and Dart retired eight out of the final nine batters she faced. 

Next up: Garden City at Ulysses, Tuesday, April 5–4 p.m.